Revised EEO-1 Report

EEO-1 REPORTS DUE SEPTEMBER 30

Employers with 100 or more employees and federal contractors with 50 or more employees and a $50,000 federal contract must provide an annual count of their employees by job category and ethnicity, race, and gender in an EEO-1 Report. The EEO-1 is due on September 30 each year, and it is used by the EEOC and Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) for statistical analysis. The next EEO-1 Report due on September 30, 2007 includes some significant changes.

New and Revised Ethnicity/Race Categories:

• "Hispanic" is now "Hispanic or Latino." Employees who identify their ethnicity as Hispanic or Latino are listed in a separate category on the new form.
• "Two or more races" is a new category for all non-Hispanic employees.
• The former "Asian/Pacific Islander" category has now been split into two separate categories.
• "Black" has been renamed "Black or African-American."

Identification of Race and Gender

Employee voluntary self-identification of gender and race is required, as opposed to visual identification by the employer, unless an employee declines to be self-identified. Visual identification by the employer is now disfavored.

Resurveying Your Work Force

Although the new regulations do not require an employer to resurvey its workforce, the EEOC "encourages" employers to allow their current employees to voluntarily self-identify using the new race and ethnic categories. If you do not have a form for self-identification, please contact us and we will provide you with one.

Revised Job Categories

Instead of the current nine job categories, employees will be grouped into ten job categories. Prior Category 1, "Officials and Managers," is divided into two levels:

• Executive/Senior Level Officials and Managers. In larger organizations, employees in Category 1.1 will be individuals within two reporting levels of the CEO and will be employees whose responsibilities require frequent interaction with the CEO.
• First/Mid-Level Officials and Managers. First/Mid-level Officials and Managers are those who direct implementation or operations within specific parameters established by the executive/senior level officials and managers. These are the managers who oversee the day-to-day operations.

The EEOC will categorize employees based on their level of responsibility and influence in the organizational hierarchy, rather than on the census codes. Employees in business and financial occupations who are non-managerial employees should be assigned to the professional category in the new system.

Clarification of Categories

A Q&A Section on the EEOC's website provides guidance on some anticipated problems with the new form.

• If an employee identifies as both "Hispanic or Latino" as well as a race category, the employer should report the employee as Hispanic or Latino.
• If an employee specifies several specific race categories, the employer should count the employee in the "Two or More Races" category.
• If the employer believes the employee is of a different race or ethnicity than the employee claims, the employer must accept the employee's self-identification for its EEO-1 Report.
• Because the new report splits the former Asian/Pacific Islander category into two categories, if an employer does not resurvey, it may report its employees formerly identified as "Asian/Pacific Islander" as "Asian" on the new form.

Voluntary Self-Identification Forms

The employees' voluntary self-identification forms should be considered confidential, should include language from the Federal Regulations concerning the proper use of the forms, and should be maintained separately from the employees' personnel records used for promotion decisions. If you do not have a form for collecting self-identification data, please contact your attorney at The Key Firm.

You can find the revised EEO-1 reporting form as well as the EEOC's guidelines for reporting at http://www.eeoc.gov/eeo1/index.html

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